Plan on this - an additional $30 mil that he can get only from the Lakers is going to make him more happy.

From the Things I Can't Let Go Files: All the Mavs had to do was pay Tyson Chandler the four-year, $58 million deal two years ago and let everyone else other than Dirk Nowitzki go.

Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, DeShawn Stevenson, J.J. Barea all could have fallen off the books and while their absence would have been felt it's nothing like losing a competent 7-footer. These guys are impossible to find, and some take forever to develop.

Chandler may never be a scorer - the man has zero offensive game - what he does defensively remains a giant hole the Mavs have never come close to replacing since he left.

Chandler is currently getting his fanny kicked by Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and is calling out teammate Carmelo Anthony in the process. Even if the Knicks lose, and they will, and Chandler continues to get worked by Hibbert, he will, it does not diminish just how badly the Mavs miss him in the middle of the floor.

He was an All-Star for the Knicks last season and was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year. Yes, it helped he played in the East and in the New York market. He was recently named to second-team on the NBA's all-defensive team.

Two guards and small forwards come and go, but athletic big-men who can guard the rim, help on switches and provide as much positive denfensive energy and leadership such as Chandler are hard to find.

It took Chandler about nine years in the NBA before he fully developed into a major player. He is 30, and should be in this window for a few more seasons.

The Mavs could have two of those, but elected for financial flexibility instead.

04/15/2013

The Dallas Mavericks'' offseason begins at the end of this week, and right now this team is staring into a giant, vast empty space of .500 if something dramatic does not happen.

The secret 0.0002% percent prayer that Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard was going to sign as a free agent with the Mavs took a dramatic turn for the worse. When Lakers guard Kobe Bryant suffered a torn Achilles a few days ago, the Lakers officially became D12's team.

The grand plan of Howard playing Kareem to Kobe's Magic did not play out the way the Lakers envisioned, but this dramatic injury changes everything.

Potentially, the Mavericks could have told Dwight, "Here is a max deal, and we are going to build around you with Dirk in his twilight" and it could have sold.

Now Dwight can see the Lakers as eventually his. Perhaps he was going to remain with the Lakers regardless, but the chance of him just saying "Screw it" and leaving for less just to get away from Kobe took a major hit in this new world.

If this happens, and the Mavs are serious about this, then potential free agent O.J. Mayo is gone.

Ellis is only 27, and averaged 19.5 points and 6.1 assists this season. Offensively, he is a major GO. He is one of the better scorers in the league. Defesnively? Not so much. That may be a rub with defensive-oriented head coach Rick Carlisle.

The Mavs are going to have money this summer to spend, and many holes to fill.

There are many reasons for this reality - cough-cough Tyson Chandler cough-cough - but one of the bigger is the decline of Dirk Nowitzki. He is either not looking for his shot, the ball is being forced out of his hands, age (34), the recovering from his surgery thing, etc. All of the reasons are legit, but what we are seeing is the worst season for Dirk since he was a rookie.

Dirk is averaging 16.4 points per game, his lowest since he was a rookie in 1998-'99 when he averaged 8.2 points.

The most alarming number is that he is averaging just 13.2 shots per game, his lowest since that first season. That figure is tied with guard O.J. Mayo to lead the team. This shouldn't even be a contest; Dirk should he averaging around 16 to 17 shots per game, which is the approximate average for his career.

Against the Nets, he had 10 field goal attempts (made 8) while Chris Kaman and Mike James each attempted more shots. That's insane.

Right now Mayo leads the team in scoring at 16.7 points per game.

The last time Dirk didn't lead the Mavs in scoring was 1999-2000 when Michael Finley had that dinstinction.

You want to win more, get the ball in the hands of your best player and let him do his thing.

03/14/2013

Forward Dahntay Jones didn't do a lot in his brief time with the Dallas Mavericks before he was traded to Atlanta, but on Wednesday night he did his former team a major solid by knocking out Kobe Bryant.

The Lakers have been hot of late, and were into the eighth seed in the Western Conference thanks largely to Bryant. But the Lakers are now in serious dog-doo and may miss the playoffs for the first time since 2005 thanks to a former Mav.

The Atlanta Hawks were leading the Los Angeles Lakers by two late on Wednesday night when Kobe went up for a long jumper with Jones guarding him. Kobe turned his left ankle on the play is out indefinitely.

02/21/2013

The Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team remains cleaning up their own mess of blowing up their title team to make a run at Deron Williams, who is busy being overrated with the Brooklyn Beyonce's.

At the NBA's trade deadline today, the Mavericks dealt swingman Dahntay Jones to the Atlanta Hawks not for Josh Smith but for guard Anthony Morrow.

Hello, Western Conference Finals.

Morrow is 27, and in 24 games this season has averaged 5.2 points and 1.1 rebounds. The 6-foot-5 guard has played for the Golden State Warriors, New Jersey Nets and Hawks since he entered the league in 2008. Most really good players play for four teams in five seasons. He has dealt with hip and back injuries this season.

Jones was part of the trade last summer with the Indiana Pacers that also brought in guard Darren Collison. In 50 games this season, Jones has averaged 3.5 points and 1.4 rebounds.

Both players have expiring contracts.

The move does nothing. The Mavs are obviously going all in with their love-fest for Los Angeles Lakers prospective free agent, center Dwight Howard.

Not sure if D12 is going to be enticed by: "Listen, Dwight, we've got Anthony Morrow. You are all that's left."

02/08/2013

This thing looked bad enough after Deron Williams said "Nope" to Mark Cuban's email offer, but once Dirk Nowitzki had to have surgery for a knee shortly before the season began all was lost.

Actually, that's not true. All hope was lost once this team made little attempt to re-sign Tyson Chandler.

Dirk missed the first 27 games of the season recovering from that surgery. The Mavs went 12-15 in those games. Since he returned, the team is 9-13.

According to the math, the Mavs are worse with Dirk!

The Mavs are of course better with Dirk in the lineup, but overall the results aren't even .500.

The NBA's trade deadline is Thursday, Feb. 21. The Bank of Cuban may be wide open for business, but for what? At this point, your Dallas Mavericks are 21-28 and six wins behind the Houston Rockets for the eighth seed in the Western Conference.

This is not a player or coach issue; everybody from Rick Carlisle down to the last guy on the bench has been professional and tried. They just don't have enough talent.

Plan on the Mavs missing the playoffs for the first time since the spring of 2000, which was the last time they did not have a winning season.

Cuban is not trading Dirk, and Dirk does not want to leave.

Everyone else has to be fair game, including the two guys who may have some value for a team looking for a little help - Shawn Marion and Vince Carter. Both of these are veterans who knew what to do and how to play, and could potentially bring something of value in return.

The problem is that few teams may be willing to deal for fear of what the NBA is going to look like when the punitive luxury tax kicks in.

The Bank of Cuban should be open, and the team may want to deal, but it is going to be hard if no one wants to walk through the door to do business.

01/02/2013

Watching the Dallas Mavericks defeat the Washington Wizards 103-94 on Jan. 1 it is now apparent what the Mavs team requires - just play the Wizards all the time.

Just when you thought Michael Jordan's Charlotte Bobcats were the worst team in the NBA, the last team he played for has new team beat. The Wizards are devoid of NBA talent in a way that could take several years to change.

The Mavericks may not be great - they are 13-19 - but they are a mere three wins behind Portland for the eighth seed in the West. Not sure reaching the playoffs is the cure for what this team needs, but the Mavericks are certainly not the worst team in the NBA.

We really won't know how good this team can be until Dirk Nowitzki is back to his regular starting spot and playing starter-like minutes. He played 17 minutes against the Wizards and scored 11 points.

By mid January the Mavericks should look like the team they planned on, and then we can decide how "good" they actually are.

12/31/2012

The one thing we can never get enough of is lists. A list of our favorite songs. The best Nicholas Sparks novels. The top 10 Rocky movies.

The end of the year brings the trite, mail-it-end look back at the year that was. Because The Big Mac Blog loves cliches as much as the next, here is a look at the best games of the year. I tried to spread the wealth ...

1. Texas Tech 56, TCU 53 (3 ot); Oct. 20, 2012.Hands down the most entertaining game of the Big 12 season. In TCU's first year of the Big 12, the Frogs led Tech by five in the fourth quarter before the Red Raiders rallied to take a 10-point lead with 4:06 remaining.TCU managed to tie the game with 18 seconds lef that set up one of the more entertaining series of overtimes you could watch.

2. Cowboys 27, Steelers 24 (ot); Dec. 16, 2012.Tony Romo played one of the best games of his career as the Cowboys rallied to win a game they trailed by seven points in the fourth quarter.Romo passed for 341 yards and two touchdowns, one to the busted-fingered Dez Bryant.The Steelers weren't as good as advertised but this was a highly entertaining game and offered the Cowboys at their best.

3. Texas Rangers 11, LA Angels 10, (10 innings); Aug. 1, 2012The Angels led 7-1 after four innings. The Rangers scored four in the fifth, and runs in the eighth and the ninth to send the game into extra innings. The Angels scored three times in the top of the 10th, but the Rangers scored four runs in the bottom of the inning, the final two on an Elvis Andrus single.

5. DeSoto 49, Southlake Carroll 45; Dec. 8, 2012.In the 5A quarterfinals, DeSoto trailed by 18 points in the first half before taking the lead. Carroll QB Kenny Hill was stopped on consecutive running plays from the 1-yard line, the final as time expired.

6. TCU 20, Texas 13; Nov. 22, 2012.Easily the biggest win of the year for TCU as the Frogs won on Thanksgiving night in Austin. The Frogs forced four turnovers, including the game-clinching pick by Sam Carter with less than two minutes remaining.

7. Oklahoma 63, Texas 21; Oct. 13, 2012.The game was boring as hell but there was so much comedy and amazement to watch Bob Stoops' Sooners put yet another nasty beatdown on Mack Brown's Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl. It truly was watching a train wreck.

8. Dallas Mavericks 101, San Antonio Spurs 100 (ot); Jan. 29, 2012This was before the Mavericks completely crashed in the playoffs and was Jason Terry at his best. He hit a 15-foot game-tying shot to tie the game with 1 second remaining and send the game into OT. Terry finished with 34 points.

9. Dallas Stars 3, Vancouver Canucks 2 (ot); Feb. 26, 2012Before the Stars fell apart to miss the playoffs yet again, they rallied for this impressive win against a good Canucks team. The Stars were down 2-1 with less than one minute remaining before Mike Ribeiro scored to tie the game. In overtime, Loui Eriksson scored the game winner.

10. Cowboys 24, NY Giants 17; Sept. 5, 2012In the NFL season opener, the Cowboys defeated the defending Super Bowl champions in what would be arguably their most complete win of the season.Romo threw for 307 yards with three touchdowns; Kevin Ogletree caught eight passes for 114 yards with two TDs; DeMarco Murray rushed for 131 yards.

12/27/2012

Not only did I never, ever think Deron Williams was going to sign with the Dallas Mavericks I never, ever thought he was worth the pursuit in the first place. Chalk this up to one of the few bold sports predictions I nailed this year.

Not that Williams can't play or isn't a dynamic scorer - the stats say the man can ball. My fear about Williams is that in his short career he achieved the impossible when Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan opted to retire than deal with this headache every day. In early Feb. of '11, Sloan quit the Jazz after 23 years.

That is the largest red flag on Williams' resume. Jerry Sloan said "screw it" rather than coach Deron Williams.

This was the player the Dallas Mavericks gutted their title-winning roster to pursue.

A few months after Williams spurned the Mavericks' offer to sign with the Brooklyn Nets, coach Avery Johsnon found himself fired this morning.

The Nets are 14-14 and in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. This season is not going the way the Nets thought it would after they re-signed Williams, traded for Joe Johnson and moved into a new arena in Brooklyn.

Williams is third on the team in scoring with 17 points per game, and leads the team averaging 8.0 assists per game. A few weeks ago he grumbled about Avery's offense, because it's never the player's fault.

The Mavs will spin this as "We never really wanted" D-Will but don't buy it. They wanted this guy, and - who knows? - maybe it would have worked under Rick Carlisle. But any guy who gets Jerry Sloan to quit was never worth the trouble.

12/21/2012

Watching the carnage between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night was arguably the most painful reminder of just how far Los Mavs have fallen since winning the NBA title two years ago.

The Miami Heat layup drill was impressive, and then it just grew tiresome and sad. The Heat's 110-95 win was not that close.

The saddest part is the Mavs were trying and hustling and it simply didn't matter because the talent differential is just too great to overcome.

The return of Dirk Nowitzki, who should be back before year's end, will help and may make the Mavs a contender for the eighth seed, but not much more.

The team can't rebound well enough. Darren Collison is an NBA guard, but he is not a pure point guard. O.J. Mayo is a good scorer, but he may be a case of a good scorer for an average team. Not sure if a team can win with O.J. Mayo as its best scorer.

The good news, we are told, is the team has all kinds of financial flexibility to pursue top line free agents who will use the Mavs as leverage and then sign with another club.